Wind and solar power get the lion’s share of attention in the realm of green energy. But Monday marked a milestone for another renewable energy source, tidal power, with the nation’s first-ever application to build a tidal power plant licensed to transmit energy onto the nation’s electrical grid.

“We are extremely excited about the submission of this license application,” Ron Smith, CEO of Verdant Power said in a statement. “It represents the culmination of nearly a decade of work undertaken by Verdant Power and a variety of project stakeholders to add tidal power to the US clean energy mix.”

The company's three-bladed underwater turbines work a lot like a submerged version of a wind power plant to capture the power generated by tides, the cyclical rushing of water toward shore or back toward the ocean. But to deploy such a system, the company had to conduct extensive research to show its system does not harm fish or other aquatic life.